Construction Employment Down in Every State, D.C.

Fri, 2010-04-09 15:22

The construction workforce was smaller in January 2010 than it was 12 months earlier in every state and the District of Columbia (D.C.), with 38 states and D.C. experiencing double-digit percentage drops in construction employment, an analysis of federal data released by The Associated General Contractors of America reveals.

"Construction employment is dropping everywhere and plummeting almost everywhere," Ken Simonson, the association's chief economist, said. "Looking at this data, it is quite clear that the construction industry has yet to hit bottom."

California lost the most construction jobs (128,700), while North Dakota lost the fewest (200) over the 12-month period. The states with the five largest percentage declines in employment were Nevada (29.9 percent), Arizona (26 percent), Colorado (22.2 percent), Idaho (21 percent), and Florida (20.4 percent). The states with the five smallest percentage declines in employment were North Dakota (1 percent), Nebraska (4.1 percent), Alaska (4.2 percent), South Dakota (5.9 percent), and Arkansas (6.2 percent).

Simonson said 31 states lost construction jobs between December 2009 and January 2010. He added that many of the states that added jobs in January had lost a greater number of jobs in December. He attributed that to unseasonable weather conditions, which, he said, are likely to affect February's state employment figures as well.